Nopesport Urban League

[Roger]

Shouldn't the juniors who ran the open at Sheffield have these points added to their points in the Junior class? It looks like that is how it worked in other races. Or have I missed something obvious?

In the nightmarish (to score, not to run!) races where classes within Urban League categories were split across different courses, with no guidance from the organisers on which course the Vets / Juniors / etc should run, points were allocated using the highly unsatisfactory min/km. In the other races, where the organisers either used the Urban League categories directly or specified which categories should run which courses (e.g. Manchester), people scored points in the categories allocated to the course in question. So juniors running up on the Open course score points in the Open category.

The message that the organisers should always provide an allocation of Urban League categories to courses didn't always get through, particularly early in the season... or in the case of 1000+ people at the JK, would never have been possible to implement.

[Roger]

... with a grand finale in Venice, anyone?!

Nice idea! There were about 100 Brits this year in the field of 3500; in this year's Urban League, only the JK (1023 scorers), the British (Warwick, 332) and London (316) had over 200 scorers.

The drawback would be the need either for people to run up (e.g. M60+ all on M55), or for the dreaded min/km, largely meaningless for a street event, to come into play. The M21 class (with Elite (selected?), A, B and C) would be particularly troublesome. And of course it would discriminate against people unable or unwilling to travel that far.

Could London stage a suitable finale, with the sort of relaxed party atmosphere that Venice had? That warm Venetian sunshine may be hard to guarantee though.

[Mrs H]

Well I think the perfect venue would be Birmingham City Centre - it famously has more miles of canals than Venice which are beautifully manicured with numerous eateries along the way, great plazas with statues and loads of modern buildings. The organisers would need to get the use of one of these atrium like corporate buildings - the foyer of Symphony hall would be nice, and of course it is central and easily accessible by an excellent public transport system.

I don't know if COBOC are still active as a club but I know they did work closely with the city council using the parks for a series of events - perhaps they could get some funding for a fabulous city centre map. HOC has quite a few members in Birmingham, (some of whom are active on here) I wouldn't even mind being involved in the EVO side myself

[distracted]

Aston University campus would probably make a nice little sprint map too...

[IanD]

Could London stage a suitable finale, with the sort of relaxed party atmosphere that Venice had?

Rumour has it that the London City Race will return for 2009 on 12th or 26th September - too early for a finale?

[awk]

Could London stage a suitable finale, with the sort of relaxed party atmosphere that Venice had?

Rumour has it that the London City Race will return for 2009 on 12th or 26th September - too early for a finale?

At least there's a chance of the weather in September - I couldn't get over how good the weather was at this year's London race, and how quickly it deteriorated afterwards.
Purely selfishly, I for one would be delighted if the City Race was in September - this year's date clashes with a regular commitment at school, and only got out of it for one-off reasons! Too good a race to have to miss!

[Roger]

Rumour has it that the London City Race will return for 2009 on 12th or 26th September - too early for a finale?

12 Sep would allow cricket fans to run early and then head to Lord's for the fourth one-day international against Australia... provided that they can get hold of a ticket of course.

[rob f]

There will be a sheffield city race again. And this time, the city will be used. It will be around the same time (late nov, early december). More soon.

[Spookster]

24 January - Edinburgh
25 January - Lincoln
7 February - Cambridge
22 March - Forres
4 April - Stirling
10 April - Newcastle
9 May - Nottingham
25 May - York
? September - London
11 October - Chester
31 October - Oxford
? November - Sheffield

Entry deadlines for the first few urban sprint races are very close. Assuming there is to be another Nopesport Urban League (I certainly hope so ), which of these will be part of the series? Maybe all of them?!

[rob f]

There appear to be more than one in lincoln over the year...

[Strider]

There appear to be more than one in lincoln over the year...

No, the second one is a mistake and should be coming off the fixture list soon....

p.

[Mrs H]

Well that's a shame - i'd already thought it would be good to pull it in on our way back from the White Rose as a last hurrah before the start of the school term.

Didn't we also think Lincoln was having a race last September which didn't happen. To lose one urban race, Mr Strider, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. ...

[Strider]

Well that's a shame - i'd already thought it would be good to pull it in on our way back from the White Rose as a last hurrah before the start of the school term.

Didn't we also think Lincoln was having a race last September which didn't happen. To lose one urban race, Mr Strider, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. ...

Gosh, it's a good job I'm such an easy going character, Mrs H....

Firstly, the '08 City Race was postponed, not 'lost', from last September (see earlier thread on this discussion), due to a clash with the AIRE C3 event on the same date, and moved to this January.

Secondly, due to there now being an '09 race, it was felt that we didn't need to put on another in the same calendar year, and so the later one will be removed and we will be back in synch....

I do hope that's careful enough for you.

P.

[Mrs H]

Oh dear - are you not familiar with the works of Oscar Wylde?

It just seems a great shame that this one is on the same weekend as the Edinburgh race - which we had long ago taken the decision to attend. We are looking forward to getting to Lincoln one day - let's hope the next date you pick will be clash free.

[Strider]

Oh dear - are you not familiar with the works of Oscar Wylde?

No, never heard of him...but I am aware of Oscar Wilde's great literary genius...

It just seems a great shame that this one is on the same weekend as the Edinburgh race - which we had long ago taken the decision to attend. We are looking forward to getting to Lincoln one day - let's hope the next date you pick will be clash free. :wink

It is indeed a shame, but when we switched to that date this was the only one which fitted in with availability of all the areas in old Lincoln (cathedral, gardens, castle, etc..), early on in 2009, and we felt that it would be less of a hit on our attendance than clashing with a more local event in Yorkshire...

The next race in 2010 is more likely to be later in the year.

P.